Sections of rail trail to open by next spring

Report says 14 km of Coldstream-Kelowna trail will open for public use in 1st phase of its development

Fourteen kilometres of the new Okanagan Rail Trail are scheduled to open for public use next March.

The first phase of the trail’s development, along an abandoned railway line, includes nine kilometres in Kelowna, and 2.5 km in both Lake Country and the Regional District of North Okanagan.

“The preliminary design for the rail trail corridor is scheduled for completion in July and will be accompanied by an updated cost estimate,” Andrew Gibbs, a City of Kelowna planner who heads the trail project, writes in a new report.

“Preparation of bid documents for the initial phase of construction is scheduled for completion in late August,” Gibbs writes.

Total length of the rail corridor from Coldstream to downtown Kelowna is nearly 50 km. The first three sections of the hiking and biking path to be opened to the public will not be continuous, but will exist as separate legs to be connected in the future.

A volunteer group, the Okanagan Rail Trail Initiative, has raised $4.5 million toward the trail’s construction cost. Members hope to achieve the fundraising target of $7.8 million by the end of this year.

Municipalities, aided by provincial funds, bought the abandoned railway corridor from CN for $22 million.

Given the investment, municipal officials have consistently said there is no additional money for the trail’s actual development, entrusting ORTI to raise the necessary funds.

However, in his report, Gibbs raises the prospect that municipalities may in fact be asked to contribute directly to the trail’s construction.

“If required, staff will advise individual (municipal) councils and (regional) boards of adjustments that need to be made to their budgets in order to develop the trail in their jurisdiction,” Gibbs writes.